Food could run dry for "forgotten refugees," WFP says

Food could run out within months for thousands of Central Africans who have fled to Chad, the UN World Food Programme has warned, saying the refugees’ plight “has barely registered” on the world scene. WFP has been feeding refugees in two camps in southern Chad since 2003, but a wave of more than 10,000 new refugees fleeing fresh violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) since June has hiked up needs. “Today we have enough to feed them through the end of the year, but after that, food will run out unless we receive new contributions,” WFP’s Chad representative, Stefano Porretti, told IRIN. In a communique this week WFP said the Central Africans are “among the forgotten refugees of Africa.” WFP says it needs US $930,000 to ensure enough food until February 2006. The agency is drawing up a longer-term plan - based on a recent joint evaluation by WFP and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) - to cover the operation from February, Porretti said from the Chadian capital, N'djamena. UNHCR estimates that some 41,450 Central Africans are living in Amboko and Yaroungou camps in southern Chad. A third camp is being set up for new arrivals since the others are nearly full to capacity. Some 28,000 fled fighting in CAR in late 2002 while the remaining refugees have arrived in Chad in the past several months, driven out by bands of armed men attacking civilians in northern CAR. It is unclear who is perpetrating the attacks, in which refugees say men have pillaged homes and stolen food and livestock. Humanitarian workers say those attacking civilians are thought to be a mix of common bandits and ex-combatants from civil wars in the volatile region. Hundreds of people are still in Chadian border towns and are expected to be transferred to camps in the coming days, UNHCR says. WFP says the new influx has stretched its resources to the limit. The new refugees are wholly dependent on food aid, unlike those who have been in Chad since 2002 and are now able to grow food or earn money through petty commerce or other means, WFP says. WFP is also providing supplemental foods to some 3,000 at-risk people among the new refugees - mostly infants, young children and their mothers. “Although some people are now fending for themselves to some degree, the new arrivals especially remain completely dependent on outside assistance,” Porretti said. “They have had a horrifying ordeal and their needs are as urgent as any others.” In the latest wave, hundreds of Central African men, women and children fled to Chad earlier this month when armed groups attacked the CAR border town of Markounda. Northern CAR is particularly hard hit by unrest that has long plagued the country, with its history of repeated coups and war. Many Central Africans in the north lack even the minimum in health care and school facilities, humanitarian workers in the region say. Some refugees say they fled northern CAR for lack of security but also because of the absence of basic services. The governments of CAR and Chad - along with neighbouring Cameroon - have conducted joint operations to try to secure the region and control the proliferation of small arms. WFP and UNHCR in Chad are also assisting some 200,000 Sudanese refugees in the east of the country.